Tales From a Really Mossy Privet

Work in progress. A series of illustrated short stories featuring obscure, un-nerving and sometimes downright odd characters from the bizaar recesses of my brain - A welder come taxidermist, a former prima-ballerina turned kleptomaniac, a failed inventor who enjoys DIY trepanning (drilling the human skull), mischievous siamese twins, a bipolic nurse. Imagine Dr Zeuss (The Cat in the Hat) meets Heinrich Hoffmann (the 19th century German writer who created the disturbing Struwwelpeter) and you're somewhere near it. All cautionary tales, told through the traveling experiences of one Reverend Agar Base. Some have been inspired by local Somerset people and some by local Somerset legends, but all are a move back to classic story telling.

I will be adding to this post as the characters and story lines develop over the next six months or so.

Watch this space.

You're all sinners the lotta ya

Back in 1999, I had the good fortune to be Creative Director of the infamous 5 Core Media Group in Newbury; a collective of radical thinkers and producers across print and digital media, headed up by Mark Smith. During the summer of that year we had been talking about doing something really different that we could send out to our clients, something that would really showcase the varied creative talents of the entire group. "How about doing a short Christmas film?" "Brilliant" we thought.

The result is the mentally obscure, 4 minute wonder called O'bleak - planned, story-boarded, written, directed, produced, propped, costumed, acted, filmed and edited entirely by the people you see in it. We built virtual 3D environments with layered effects. We created surprisingly effective green screening sequences. Filmed on location. We even wrote and recorded our own film score to go with the film, which was master-minded by Chris Hook (PR Director and former member of the band Voyager), Jim Holmes and Nigel Watts-Plumpkin (www.scorpiosongs.com).

Origins of sayings 3 - Checkmate

'Checkmate' is the term used in chess when an apponent's king is placed in a position from which it cannot escape. The expression, like the game itself, comes from the Middle East and echoes two Arabic words shah mat which simply means 'the king is helpless'. More soon.

Visualising Courses

I was running an Advanced Creative Visualising course for six designers in Taunton last week, and one of them asked me to demonstrate exactly how quickly a complicated visual could be produced, so that they could see the process I use. The visual below was achieved with just a WACOM Tablet, a few figure references and a can of Red Bull. It was drawn from scratch, layered, sliced, diced, composed, flattened and saved in 74 minutes.

Visualising Workshops are available from agarbase, at www.agarbase.com/workshops.htm

More from the archives

I have to say, this was one of the more challenging campaigns I have worked on over the years. Porcelain tile adhesives. What can you say? It took quite a bit of head scratching, internet research, calls to stockists and DIY-guru friends to crack this one. One simple fact seemed common to all - 'if you don't use a dedicated porcelain adhesive when putting up porcelain tiles, sooner or later they will fall off'. From this came the general concept which put a new spin on old sayings like 'as useful as a chocolate teapot' or 'an ashtray on a motorbike'. Originally, there were three ads - Asparagus Drill, Toothpaste Mortar and Haddock Hammer. However, when the superb models turned up from John Wright Modelmakers in Bristol (famous for their excellent work on Aadman's 'The Wrong Trousers' and 'A Close Shave' amongst others), it was felt that the haddock looked way too life-like, and had real potential to offend old ladies and animal rights activists. It was therefore decided to turn the haddock into a very large sausage (not pictured). The final three ads were also developed into a Direct Marketing campaign.

Origins of sayings 2 - Eating Humble Pie

Anyone made to 'eat humble pie' is forced to come down from a lofty position they had previously adopted, in order to defer to others and frequently suffer humiliation at the hands of those they had formerly looked down on. This sense of hierarchy comes from the traditions of the medieval hunting feast in which a clear distinction was drawn between the food served to the lord and his peers, and the huntsmen in lower station. While the lord and household were served venison at their high table, the huntsmen and lower orders were seated further down the table where they were given the deer's entrails or 'umbles', made into pie. 'Humble Pie' is a pun on this 'umble pie' and those served it are made to eat inferior food in an inferior position.

A blast from the past

I always love looking through old work - stuff that has been relegated from my main folio, into one of the 'Don't Chuck, you never know when you might need it' folders. I came up with the idea for this curious little, Direct Marketing piece after studying one of those fire safety blankets in the kitchen of my local town hall, while it was playing host to an antiques fair (I think you can guess how exciting the exhibitors were). I thought it would be funny to turn the whole thing on it's head, so I created the concept of an Emergency Comfort Blanket, that could be sent out to potential new clients and hung up somewhere visible in their office. Then, the next time the marketing department gets let down by their incumbent creative agency, they could reach for the ECB, pull the soft blanket out of it's holder, place it against their cheak to relieve the stress and give us a call. It received a very positive response and contributed to the agency winning three new clients.